It was Tuesday afternoon, and I still remember clearly that it was the hottest day of the year when I met with my coachee Alice. She is in her early thirties, had just been promoted to a leadership role, and was brimming with drive and energy. However, the past few weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster for her, swinging between euphoric excitement about the new position and uncertainty about the responsibility it entails. Alice was now entering the ambiguities and complexities of a leadership role. Although she had received training at her company, she told me that it had not adequately prepared her for the role of a leader. “This is completely new territory for me,” she began the conversation. “Before, I knew exactly what was expected of me and what results I needed to deliver. Now I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of topics and responsibilities. I currently lack a clear direction.”
When professionals move into leadership positions, I often observe that they feel much like Alice. With every rung they climb on the career ladder, complexity and the diversity of topics they need to manage increase. This presents not only an intellectual challenge but also an emotional and psychological one. Anyone who tries to resist this change or oppose it would do well to reconsider taking on a leadership role.
A paradigm shift – from executor to navigator
In a role without leadership responsibilities, where one works as an operational contributor, it is usually very clear what is expected and what results are to be achieved. But the higher one climbs in a career, the less defined things become — something my coachee Alice quickly realized. Suddenly she was no longer in her routine, task-oriented daily work. Instead, her employees as individuals moved more into focus. First, she had to develop an understanding of the new demands in her changed role.
Use your expertise as a “bullshit detector”
The step into leadership is a significant leap that should never be underestimated. To lead effectively, a profound transformation is required, one that takes place both on an intellectual and an emotional level. In my experience, this transition happens gradually and often takes several years before one fully matures into a leadership personality and truly settles into the role. It is important to retain the skills of a specialist, but to use them differently as a leader. Ideally, specialized knowledge serves as a reliable “bullshit detector,” helping to immediately recognize inaccuracies, errors, and complications and to ask the decisive questions. At this point, many new leaders risk falling into a trap. Full of enthusiasm, they dive into the work, lose themselves in details, and begin to feel more like specialists again than leaders. But with a promotion to “manager of people,” the scope of responsibilities and the way time should be used fundamentally change. Rather than focusing on the details of their own work, leaders must now understand the behavior and needs of different individuals.
Leave perfectionism in the details behind
This also means that time must be used more effectively and distributed more broadly to meet the demands of the new position. New leader Alice told me that this adjustment was difficult for her and had increased her workload. She also felt noticeably more stressed and overwhelmed. To help Alice see her situation clearly, we did a small thought experiment. I said to her: “Imagine that, as a team leader, you carry a wide range of responsibilities and at the same time continue to work on details as deeply as your team members. How do you think that would work?” Alice pondered and finally realized that such an approach would not be feasible in reality. She could not maintain complete control over all areas of responsibility, and the resulting workload would not be sustainable. This small aha moment made it clear that Alice needed to work on her time management and prioritization to become more effective and avoid overloading herself.
Do you feel the same way as Alice? Are you in a new leadership position and unsure where the journey is heading? Then pre-order my new book The Hero’s Journey of a Leader – How to Become the Best Version of Yourself as a Leader now, available on Amazon, Orell Füssli, Wiley, or directly from the author.